Re: devfs vs. udev

Robert L. Harris
2003-10-07T14:23:58Z

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Thus spake M?ns Rullg?rd (mru@users.sourceforge.net):

> Andreas Jellinghaus <aj@dungeon.inka.de> writes:
>
> >> I noticed this in the help text for devfs in 2.6.0-test6:
> >>
> >> Note that devfs has been obsoleted by udev,
> >
> > devfs works fine, lists all devices, and obsoletes makedev.
>
> That's my experience.

Same here but read on.

> > udev needs patching for several issues, current sysfs only exports
> > many but by far not all devices, and because of that makedev
> > is still needed to create an initial /dev.
> >
> > in short: devfs works fine. udev has quite a way to go.
> > so marking devfs obsolete was done too soon by far. but
>
> Exactly my point.
>
> I'd also like an explanation of the rationale behind the switch.
> devfs works and is stable. Why replace it with an incomplete fragile
> userspace solution? I recall reading something about the original
> author not updating devfs recently, but I can't see why that requires
> rewriting it from scratch.

As a pro-devfs person I felt the same and hate to say it but "read the
archives". Someone gave a good writeup on the problems with devfs and
how udev will (eventually) solve them.

I just hope udev can give a look/feel similar to devfs as I have quite a
few machines already in production configured for devfs and really like
the manageablility.

:wq!
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